The Way of the World
by Nolesr1
Summary: A century has passed since the Giant War. The heroes of old have faded into legend and the gods and goddesses have become a memory. The 'Camps' have become Academies- a home for the Legacies and the rare Demi-god. Here, they learn about their pasts and futures. Every year, there are Games. Games that pit the 3 major Academies against each other. I need OC's please!
1. Chapter 1

The Way of the World

Okay everyone! I have an idea for a story but I need help:

I need a Beta who knows Norse mythology backwards and forwards.

And I also need OC's who are Greek, Roman, or Norse.

Name:

Nickname:

Family:

Personality:

Ethnicity:

Parent:

Demi-god or Legacy:

Hair color:

Eye color:

Height:

Weight:

Seasonal Outfit:

Favorite outfit:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Friends:

Enemies:

Love interest(s):

Weapon of choice:

Anything Extra:


	2. Ari i

**Okay, chances are that this will be a slow update, but please read! Also, I don't know whether or not I should put a disclaimer, but I will anyways; I do not own Percy Jackson. that honor belongs to Rick Riordan.**

**Please read and review!**

The longer Arianna stared at the screen, the blurrier her vision got. Sighing, she turned away from the blasted, fuzzy, crappy piece of technology and glanced out the door to the living room of her home, giving her eyes a momentary reprieve: the old TV-complete with a working DVD and a VCR- flickered to life as the storm outside raged. Growing up in the Sunshine State, most people have the mistaken notion that it is sunny every day, of every hour, twenty-five hours a day, seven days week. As Arianna liked to explain to everyone who would listen; this was a LIE. On the off day that there was sun, the day was bipolar meaning that in the wee hours of the morning, the temperature was cold. Freezing cold. Cold enough that the 10th grader was usually found underneath some oversized Hoodie that she had borrowed-read, stole-from her older brother who, of course, had absolutely no problem offering his fuzzy hoodies to his adorable baby sister. And by noon, Arianna usually wound up discarding the Hoodie and replacing it with her lovely, bright green Tank. Yes, that was the real Florida. And in the winter, it rarely got cold until December 20th, something Arianna usually didn't mind. Cold, to her, was hell; after all, she had learned after reading _Dante's Inferno_, the ninth Circle of Hell _was_ covered in ice.

"Arianna!" her older brother called from his place on the large, overstuffed couch, "When are you going to get off that thing? I need it for school, and you're probably just updating your Tumblr page." Arianna rolled her eyes at him, even though he couldn't see her; the couch faced away from the computer room and there was a glass door separating the computer room from the living room.

"Of course I'm updating my Tumblr page!" she called back, even though that was the opposite of what she was doing. Her parents had promised to get her a Wolf puppy if she could come up with a fact that her Zoologist/Artist of a mother hadn't known before. Her results? A big side of 'Hell to the _No_.' her mother knew _everything_. "Like, my totes Favorite artists-_BurdgeBug_, _Viria_, and _andythelemon_ - all update their Tumblr's every day!"

"Hurry up!" he called again and Arianna could definitely pick up the irritated edge to his voice, "before this god-awful storm short-circuits the entire house!"

"Then turn off the TV!"

"Ari!"

"Fine, fine," she muttered, turning her attention back to the Computer, the brightest light in the whole room. Usually, her mom and step-dad told her to keep at least one light in the room on, but with the large window that took up about half of the wall above the Computer desk, the natural light from the sun usually lit up the room; Arianna rarely found herself using the lamp on the desk unless she absolutely had to. Unfortunately, because she hadn't used it in so long, she wasn't aware that the bulb had burned out. Now, she didn't know how to install it or how to take the burned bulb out. The moral of the story? Step-fathers are good the electronics. Young girls with the attention span of a fly? Not so good with electronics. She still had a burn from when she had tried to replace the bulb in her bathroom. Sighing, she returned to the 'Google' page of her computer and made to exit out of her page. Suddenly, a thought struck; her mother hadn't said anything about facts on wolves on Mythology, had she? Surely that had to count for something! Excitement bubbling in her stomach, she typed into the search page 'Wolves in Mythology.' Clicking the 'enter' button, she ignored the outside world as a large clap of thunder sounded, only flinching when she could swear that the house was shaking. She allowed a short glance out the window and winced slightly when she saw the bleak gray of the world around her. She had never seen a tornado, thank God, despite multiple warnings and watches, but the sky outside seemed to indicate that there would be another warning or watch just around the corner. Hurricanes, however, were a different matter but it was hardly Hurricane weather; hell, it wasn't even Hurricane _season_. Shaking those thoughts away, Arianna returned her attention to the screen, waiting for her dinosaur to load. Moments passed and nothing happened, save for the booming of the thunder to get even louder. She ignored this, reminding herself that she hadn't been afraid of Thunderstorms since she was seven and that was only because her step-father and brothers hadn't been around to help her through it.

"Ari," her brother yelled, "hurry up!"

"Calm your tits, Jase!" she called back irritably, "it's hardly my fault that this ancient piece of crap seems content to wait for the next ice age before loading!" hearing a low oath, Arianna guessed that her brother had just decided to rise from his comfortable seat on the couch. Seconds later, her assumptions were proven right as her brother stumbled in while rubbing his eyes as he entered the bright, blue room. Another thing their parents had always told them; never watch TV in the dark, It royally screws up your eyesight. Turns out that her and her straight-laced brother had one thing in common: both were complete rebels.

"Don't blame the computer for your incompetence," Jase chided, patting her head like she was five. Arianna slapped his hand away and, for safety measures, added a swift smack to the side of his head. He glared at her. She smiled and returned to the computer screen, pointedly ignoring him. The thunder in the distance boomed louder than ever. Arianna shivered, hugging her arms tightly around herself. Jase gave a low, impressed whistle, "damn," he muttered, sounding astonished, "looks like the world is tearing itself apart."

"Stop staring at the weather," Arianna snapped, her resting her elbow on the computer desk and then resting her chin in the palm of her hand, "come on; this isn't the first time you've seen weather like this." Jase shrugged,

"Well, I can't remember the last time I saw weather like _this_," he told her, emphasizing his words with a glance to the window. "I mean, _damn_ Ari, _look at it!" _she raised her head to face the window, but kept her eyes locked on the screen, silently counting down the remaining seconds for the computer to work.

"Finally," she breathed when the page popped up. She saw countless links to wolves in all kinds of mythology and cultures; Greek, Roman, some Norse, Germanic cultures, Native American cultures and on and on it went. The thunder roared somewhere in the horizon. "Took you long enough," she huffed, directing her words at the screen.

"You know something, Ari?" Jase began, leaning forward until his chin rested in Arianna's shoulder. She wrinkled her nose at him but otherwise paid him no mind. Jase continued, not seeming perturbed by her lack of response, "studies show that technology doesn't work any better when you talk to it. Especially when you insult it. Isn't it great what we as a country spend our money on?" Again, Arianna paid no mind to his comment, but continued to read the links and the descriptions of the links.

"Ooh!" She called out excitedly after a couple of minutes, "did you know that the plague is what put humans on the menu for wolves? Apparently, when the number of bodies began stacking up, the wolves would gather outside the city, sit and wait, and then eat the bodies?"

"Charming," Jase grumbled, wrinkling his own nose in response, "Fascinating. Truly. I am awestruck at your knowledge but I kind of doubt mom'll be; come on Ari, do you really think that she won't know anything about this? It's her life's goal to know everything about wolves and their history-nasty though it may be-is part of it."

"Fine, fine," she mumbled, leaving that page and searching for another. Thunder boomed, louder than ever and Arianna could almost swear she felt the house shake. Impossible, she thought, this house has been up for _decades_; a little storm won't tear it down. Another link caught her attention, "Wow," she exclaimed in amazement, grinning as Jase leaned in to read over her shoulder, "look at this; apparently, the Norse god Odin-isn't he the dude with the eye patch from those old _Thor_ movies?-he had, like, two pet wolves that were, apparently, omens of 'good luck.'" She continued reading and then wrinkled her nose, "yikes but apparently not all wolves are good ones."

"Fenrir?" Jase asked with a snort and a shake of his head. Arianna rolled her eyes as she felt his dark hair brush against her cheek and temple. He needed a haircut. "I've heard of him; nasty beast, the son of Loki and some other person who's name escapes me."

"Loki?"

"Tom Hiddleston," Jase corrected with a grin, turning and tweaking her nose. "You know: the green dude with the ram horns? The villain in those old movies?" Arianna nodded, accepting his words as fact. Just then, a loud crash of thunder, sounding like a monster tree had just fallen in their lawn, sounded and both teens flinched.

"Damn," she muttered, staring outside in shock. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could almost swear that the storm had gotten worse since the last time she had looked outside. But that was impossible, she thought, weather doesn't change within, like, ten minutes. At least, none of the weather she had seen. Arianna shook her head and returned her gaze to the computer. Leaving that page, she returned to the 'Google' page and, again, started looking for a good link.

"What about that one?" Jase asked, pointing with his finger towards one of the options. Arianna squinted at it and clicked on it. A large page with a dark screen with a rearing and snarling wolf appeared. She leaned forward and began reading aloud,

"'Fenrir, in Norse mythology, is a monstrous wolf who was a major threat to the gods until they found a way to chain him, using a magic fetter. The name Fenrir means 'from the swamp.' Also known as the Fenris wolf, he was the offspring of the trickster fire god Loki. His sister was the goddess Hel and his brother the evil serpent Jormungand. It was because of Fenrir that the god Tyr lost his right hand. The Vikings believed that during Ragnarok, the battle that would take place at the end of the world, Fenrir would swallow the god Odin; Odin's death would be avenged by his son Vidar.'" Outside, the wind picked up, trees blew wildly about and she could almost swear that she could feel the wind from her place behind the glass window. Shaking her head, she tightened her arms around her small frame and slid lowered in her chair, trying in vain to warm herself. The dark room, once comforting, now reminded her of scary stories told around a camp fire, the world around them dark and muffled by the sounds of whispering breezes and the spooky melody of the narrator's voice. Arianna knew this; she was epic at telling scary stories. Jase shook his head,

"But… wait; gods can't die, can they?"

"Kronos ate his kids," she pointed out while quickly exited the page. Jase shook his head,

"Yeah, but they weren't dead, were they? I mean, the second daddy dearest spat the kids out they were all ready to kick their daddy's ass." Arianna shrugged, at a loss,

"Then I suppose the same thing applies to this; maybe not _dead_ dead but just out of commission for a bit."

"Interesting," he mused softly, rubbing the soft fuzz across his chin. Curious, Arianna reached out her hand and slid it across his skin as well; it really was fuzzy and soft! The thunder boomed outside but neither she nor Jase paid it any mind. "Oh!" Jase gasped suddenly, leaning forward until his shoulder brushed her's, "What about that link, the one right there? What's that one about?"

"Probably something about wolves."

"… just click on it."

"That's what she said." Jase just stared at her and then slowly began shaking his head at her.

"What?" she asked irritated. He still didn't answer, just continued with the head shaking. "What?!" he didn't answer, just reached forward, grabbed the mouse from her, and began his own search.

"Look at this!" Before she could say something about returning to her what he stole, Jase began reading aloud, "Berserkers-or berserks-were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury. Most historians believe that berserkers worked themselves into a rage before battle, but some think that they might have consumed drugged foods-" the thunder outside boomed, seeming closer than ever before. Neither Arianna nor Jase paid it any mind, too entranced in the description, "- Norse legend depicts these human warriors who would transform into maniacal, uncontrollable beings sometimes in the shapes of _wolves_, bears and wild bulls. This would improve their effectiveness in battle-"the screen began to surge and Arianna swore that the lights from out in the living room were getting brighter and brighter, "-They are described as having bloodshot eyes, incredible strength, and endurance-"with each description the lights grew brighter and brighter and she almost told her brother to stop, just _stop reading_, but she couldn't find her voice. "Scandinavian kings would use the Berserkers as their part of their army or as their personal bodyguards," the moment the word 'bodyguard' left Jase's mouth, the electronics on both rooms suddenly died; there was nothing, no light, anywhere. If not for the gray light from outside, Arianna wouldn't have been able to see the astonished look reflected in Jase's eyes. But she did. She stared at him out of the corner of her eye and just studied him, just to see what he would do next. The two stayed there-one sitting, the other standing-in complete silence. Finally, Jase broke the heavy stillness,

"Well _damn it! _I still need to work on that stupid project for Econ!"

….

Despite the threat of a Tornado, the next day of school was still in session and Arianna and Jase were still forced to go. Luckily, one of Jase's friends was more than willing to help him out. Not so luckily, Tyler wound up missing school because he was sick. Sucks for Jase.

"You don't have to be so amused," he snapped for the third time as the two began their walk home for the end of the school day. She didn't care,

"So, let's see if we have this right; you were told about this project _two weeks ago_, knew when it was due a week and a half ago, and you just tried to begin working on it last night, right?"

"Well, when you say it like that it sounds kind of sad."

"It _is _sad, Jase."

"Whatever," he huffed while turning away from her. The girl in question rolled her eyes at his behavior but made to follow him; she knew where he was going; he was going to the old gas station at the corner of the street, probably to get a can of coke or something. She almost reached him when he turned to glare at her over his shoulder, "I'm fine Ari! Just… go home or something. I'll see you later." She glared at his retreating form, annoyed by his pettiness but knowing that she was being slightly hypocritical. Sighing, she returned to her original path and began to make her way home. She was about five minutes out when she decided to take a shortcut through an empty lot. It was no problem; she had done it thousands of times before. When she reached the lot, though, she became aware of the oddest feeling on the back of her neck; her hair standing on end. Frowning, she rubbed the back of her neck and turned on spot to look and see what had caught her attention, her messenger bag banging against her hip. There was no one there; odd. Shrugging it off, she continued her trek through the lot and made it about halfway through when the feeling started again, as strong as before. She dropped her bag and spun around on the balls of her feet. Again, no one was there. Crouching down to grab her bag, she paused and unzipped the compartment on the cover. Shoving her hand in the bag, she began shifting through endless amounts of useless crap until her hand brushed against what she was looking for; her pepper spray. Unsheathing the bottle, she grabbed the messenger bag's handles, placed it back on her shoulder, and continued walking, the pepper spray held tightly in hand. She was more than halfway through, at the very opening of an alleyway that her and Jase uses to hide in to scare their younger siblings, when the sound of gravel overturning caught her attention. Without turning, she shot into the alleyway and searched for some place to hide behind; she didn't know what she was doing, but there was some inborn _thing_ telling her what to do. Crouching down in front of one of the old, metal trash cans, she searched the lot for whatever could be making her nerves go haywire. Glancing around slowly, she was about to admit that she was crazy and needed to be institutionalized when she saw something big in lumbering into the lot; the man, from what she could see, was tall- incredible tall, maybe 7 feet-and had facial hair the color of coal. Something glinted from the man's side and when the man was close enough, Arianna caught sight of what it was. She felt the blood drain from her face as realization flooded her mind; it was a sword. The monstrous, giant _thing_ had a sword.

She needed a bigger can of pepper spray.

**Good? Bad? Mellow? Cookies? Yeah!**


	3. Ari ii

**Hey! Hey! Look! another chapter in the same day! Must be a miracle! I don't own Percy Jackson although I wish I did!**

The thing about being in life or death situation is that you never have time to come up with a _sane_ plan; only enough time to come up with an _escape_ plan. That's exactly the how Ari found herself, back pressed against the stone wall as tightly as humanly possible. She made sure to keep her breathing low but she could still hear her heart pounding away in her ears, much like a drum in one of those old rock bands that fill her IPod. The… _thing_ was lumbering closer and closer and Ari could swear that she could smell something… awful on her assailant. Her mind filled with visions of wrestlers who had taken one too many knocks to the head, drug lords too tightly wound up with whatever their selling, Society's worst strung out on whatever they bought the night before…

Berserkers on the move.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she quickly discarded it; _impossible_. Those things didn't exist; ergo one couldn't be stalking her now. Hell, she didn't even know _if_ it was stalking her; chances are it was some drunk. At 2:30 in the afternoon. On a Thursday. Yeah, there was nothing at_ all_ suspicious about that.

The figure got closer and Ari sunk lower behind her Metal can, her Pepper spray clutched tightly in her hand. When the figure was close enough that she could see defining characteristics, she saw that its face was covered in coarse, dark hair, its body was covered with thick, meaty muscles, and its eyes glowed with a frightening intensity. Ari gulped; she _may_ be in a bit over her head.

_Focus_, a voice whispered in the back of her mind causing Ari to flinch at the unexpected-ness of it all, _study and focus on anything that can be used to your advantage._

_-Incredible strength_, another voice whispered, this one seeming to want to intimidate her, _undefeatable._

_Focus, _the first voice whispered, slowly fading back into the recesses of her mind. Taking in a deep breath, Ari decided to listen to the first voice, ignoring the lump of fear that was forming in the pit of her throat. Shifting her weight to get a better angle on the thing, she clutched the bottle in her hand, making sure to keep it loose enough so that she could easily move it around, but still tightly clutched in her hand, enough so that there was no chance of it falling out. Her right hand brushed against the alley wall as a means to keep her balance. The thing crept close and closer until she could hear its labored breathing filling the smelly alleyway. She forced herself to stay stock still-an incredible feat for a girl who couldn't stand being in a movie theater for too long. She felt the muscle and tendons in her arms and legs and back begin to burn. _One more minute_, she thought_, just one more minute_. The thing glanced around the alley way as though looking for something, its searching bringing him closer and closer to her hiding spot.

_One more minute…_

The thing lifted its head to the sky, reminding Ari of hunting dogs trying to catch the scent of something. It turned its great head in her direction and Ari swallowed nervously, praying to every deity she could think of for her plan-or escape-to work. The silence that encompassed the alleyway reminded her of a horror movie; she was honestly surprised that nothing had-

_RIIIIIING!_

Ari stilled, her entire being praying that the buzzing was not coming from the cover pocket of her messenger bag; that it was, in fact, nothing more than an illustrious nightmare her mind had come up with after the night before.

_RIIIIIING!_

She flinched as the beast's head swerved to where she was and she swiveled to where her bag rested at her side, scrambling to find her phone. She managed to grab it, its screen glowing dangerously; she glanced at the screen and saw a picture of Jase. The phone was shaking dangerously in her hand; she scrambled for some way to turn it off. Realizing there was no way that she could do it with her one hand; she dropped the pepper spray and used her free hand to turn it off. She managed to, by some miracle, turn her phone off. Her breath barely coming out, she stared at the darkened screen, realizing that she could no longer hear the beast's shuffling steps. Staring daggers at her phone she saw a strange outline on her screen. Movement from behind her caught her attention and before she could fully formulate a plan, she stood up as straight as she could, turned on her heels, and shoved the phone in her hand as hard as she could into the thing's nose and as the thing reared back, she took her opportunity and darted towards the slight opening that the monster had created.

She was never more grateful for her slight stature than she was in this moment.

She heard the beast's growl of fury at having its prey escape, but she continued running, one plan after the other crossing her mind but only one clear thought was heard; she was going to _murder_ Jase. She had barely reached the entrance of the alleyway when three shadows appeared before her. Skidding to a stop, she stared on horror as three people- all of whom were around her age, maybe older-appeared, the one in the front gripping a sword. A _freaking_ _sword. _Where the hell would he have to go to buy a sword?!

Okay, she thought, which is worse; a giant man/monster/thing? Or three teenagers brandishing weapons? Weighing her options, she came up with a decision within a mere seconds; she turned on her heels and spun to face the monster, ignoring the surprised yell coming from the crazy teens behind her. The monsters didn't seem to know what was going on-evidently, it had never met prey stupid enough to rush it-and stilled in its movements. Ari found her chance; ducking to the side of the monster's large frame, she found herself skidding to the very spot where she had just tried to escape from. On the ground rested her messenger bag-God, what was she _thinking_ abandoning her bag?-she ignored it and reached for the can of Pepper spray she had abandoned earlier. The second her fingers tightened around it, she heard the unfamiliar sound of metal on metal and she turned just in time to see the boy raise his sword to the monster-the monster mirroring his actions with its own sword-and bring it down, hard; the monster lurched out of the way, surprisingly nimble for its size. Frantically, as she was looking for some kind of weapon, the voice from earlier drifted through her head,

_A shield._

_Shield_, she thought, frantically glancing around her, _shield shield shield, holy crap, she couldn't even find-_

_A shield, _she realized, staring in amazement at the lid of the metal trash can. She reached for it just as the sound of something hitting the ground, _hard_, erupted from behind her. She flinched but closed her fingers around the handle of the lid. Spinning on her heels, the lid clenched tightly between her fingers, she brandished her can of Pepper spray in the other hand. The sight before her didn't inspire any sort of confidence; the boy from earlier was lying on the ground moaning, his sword a couple feet away from his body, one of the teens from earlier crouched at his side, and the other teen leaping and dodging out of the way of the monster. She needed only one chance,

"Hey!" She shouted, slamming the Pepper spray against the lid, hard. The motion caught everyone's attention, but she kept her eyes on the thing in front of her, "Hey! Big, stupid, and ugly! Right here, Godzilla! Come at me bro!" Unfortunately, her call managed to distract the dude already fighting the monster, so when the beast turned on him, he was easily knocked to the ground. She tried to ignore the tightening in her gut when the kid didn't get up. The monster lumbered towards her, its sword raised halfway up in its hands, and she held her ground, waiting for the very perfect moment to act. It was mere feet in front of her when she moved; she chucked the lid as hard as she could at the monster's head and nearly whooped with joy when it hit its mark, spot on. The monster doubled over, clenching its forehead, and growling in what she hoped was pain. She noticed a couple of open cuts on the thing's arms and forehead that she hadn't noticed before. It lifted its head, its eyes now levelled to hers, and Ari acted; she lifted her arm with the Pepper spray and pointed it at the thing's battle-crazed eyes and sprayed. The reaction was instantaneous; it roared and fell back. Ari stepped back, flinching when the noise practically burst her eardrums. Dropping the can to the ground, she covered her ears. Still roaring, the beast began waving its arms around wildly and Ari suddenly had the irrational fear of being thrown against the alley wall. Still flailing about wildly, Ari could tell that when the sword suddenly entered its back that the monster/thing hadn't been expecting it; its entire body arched and a roar of pure pain emitted from between the things yellow, crooked teeth. Right in front of her eyes, the monster's body was encompassed with strange, glittery… things and she watched as the thing stared at her through large, glazed over eyes before vanishing in a cloud of sparkly dust particles. The silence that followed after the little battle was heavy enough that Ari became very, very aware of the heavy breathing of all the alley way's occupants, including her own. It was the boy with a sword who acted first; he chuckled, a low sound that echoed throughout the entire alleyway. Very slowly, the other two followed his lead. Ari stayed silent, slowly falling back a step as the three caught each other's eyes and smiled while she was crouching down to grab her can.

"Oi!" The boy with the sword called suddenly. Ari paled, thinking that he had saw what she was reaching for, but he only stepped forward, rubbing the blade of his sword against his jeans. Ari straightened up, hiding the can halfway behind her body. The dude stepped forward until he was only a few feet in front of her. Despite her obvious discomfort with having a dude with a weapon so close to her, she realized that he was actually really good-looking; in the dim light of the alleyway, she saw that his hair was a really nice corn silk color, shoulder-length, and his eyes were a brilliant dark blue color, he also had a really nice build. However, his hotness was broken when he opened his mouth,

"Well, well, well, and here I was thinking that Baldur had sent us to pick up someone who was _actually_ a threat." He announced, his incredible accent not taking away the sting of the comment. Ari scowled at him, clutching her can even tighter in her hand.

"Come _on_, Alec!" The boy farthest away called, this one with a Yankee accent-she had been to New York before, she _knew_ Yankee accents- "Stop fooling around! Just grab her already!" Ari stiffened and clutched the can in her hand even tighter.

"Oh for the love of-"another voice muttered irritably from behind 'Alec.' Ari stiffened, realizing that she was now alone in an alleyway with three boys, one who had a sword and the other two were undoubtedly armed. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, preparing to flee the second she got some kind of opening. The exasperated boy-God, she needed to learn some names! She needed _something_ to give to the cops-stopped right next to Alec and eyed Ari warily. Suddenly, he shot her a faint smile and raised an eyebrow, "impressive, by the way, with the-"

"_Enough_ Nate," Alec drawled, sheathing his sword in a leather… thing attached to his waist. _Not yet_, she thought, _but soon…_

"-still can't see what the big deal is," the blonde was saying totally ignoring Ari and chatting with the Nate dude. "I mean, she doesn't look near as impressive as I thought she would."

"Bored?" Nate asked wryly, rolling his eyes at Alec, "come on, Alec, remember that _you _chose to come here."

"I thought there would be something interesting!" Ari snorted,

"If it makes you feel any better, Blondie, I'm not this impressed with you either." Silence met her statement, before a loud, echoing laugh was heard from the dude at the alleyway's entrance. Nate, who Ari could tell had dark, shaggy hair, laughed outright and grinned fully at Ari.

"_See_, Alec? Not everyone wants you around!"

"Piss of," the blonde boy snapped running a hand though his hair. He sighed and shook his head, levelling an irritated glare and Ari as he turned to Nate, "okay; I'll get the girl and-"

"'Ari'," the girl in question snapped. Alec turned and raised an eyebrow at her,

"Beg pardon?"

"My name's 'Ari'," she snapped, gripping the can even tighter in her hand, "not 'the girl' but Ari. As in a real, sentient being who has no problem in kicking your ass."

"Ahh," Alec drawled shooting her an amused, arrogant smile. Although the words were spoken to Nate, he kept his gaze on her, undoubtedly emphasizing who he was talking about, "funny, isn't it? Newbies take down one Berserk and they automatically think that they can fight. Tiresome, isn't it? Granted, this one can't be that bright, as she just tried to run one."

"Speaking of 'not so bright' have you heard that one joke about the blonde and the cop?" Ari didn't know what it was-call it her own bout of cockiness or her just being a plain ole' smartass-but she couldn't help what came out of her mouth whenever this poser opened his. Alec ignored her, although she could see the muscle in his jaw tense, and turned to Nate,

"Look, I can talk to her; you just get everything ready. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Nate answered, bobbing his head once at Ari and turning towards the entryway. As soon as he had begun walking, Alec turned to Ari. _One more minute_, she thought.

"Alright, I'll try and explain as best I can, you just need to keep your mouth shut while I do that, okay?" She nodded and he continued,

"Well, to be honest, I can't explain everything right now-bloody stupid, that would be- but I can tell you that A) we mean you no harm," he laughed outright at that and shook his head, "gods that sounds ridiculous." _One more min-_

_Wait a minute._

_GODS?!_

"Anyways," Alec continued, completely oblivious to the turmoil he had just thrown her into. "And B) well, let's just say it's not wise to speak outside somewhere not safe, especially with the conversation I know is coming. So, just come with us and-"

"Are you on something?!" Ari demanded, choosing, for a second, to ignore his earlier words_-'gods?' impossible_-"after what you just did you honestly expect me to just come along willy-nilly and forget what just happened?"

"We saved your life!"

"You. Had. A. _Sword!_ Call me crazy but _that's not normal_!" He huffed; looking annoyed, but then shook her words off. When he spoke next, his words were clipped,

"Look, we can explain everything later; the point is you need to come with us now or-"the thing was, if he hadn't stepped forward, there was a very good chance that she would have let him finish. But he hadn't stayed where he was, he had decided that she needed a hug or whatever inane thing he thought she needed. She reacted; when he stepped closer she brought her hand up as quickly as she could and pointed the Pepper spray at his face, then released the painful spray. His reaction, much like the man's before him-she refused to acknowledge him as a 'Berserk'-was instantaneous; he fell back, his hands going to his face, and roared. Ari didn't hesitate; she ran around him as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, the one thing she hadn't taken in was the fact that, if he had a sword, then that meant that his reflexes were probably a lot better than hers. She had barely taken three steps when his arm, the one not covering his face, flew out, stopping her advance. Unfortunately, his arm went around her waist and he threw her against the alleyway wall. Unprepared for the painful blow, her head wound up slamming against the stone wall. The action created a small gathering of black and white lights that danced in and out of her vision. The black dot dominated and, for a second, her vision and mind went black.

….

"-can't believe you threw her against the wall!"

"She sprayed me with Pepper spray-bloody _Pepper_ spray!-have you ever had that sprayed in your face?"

"I-well… No. But- "

"Then you have no bleeding room to talk-"

"Enough!" Another voice ordered, sounding painfully familiar to her. Painfully because her head was pounding and it felt like she had a hangover. "Both of you; shut up, okay? Neither of you are helping anyone when you stand there arguing like a bunch of children."

"We _are_ children."

"…Shut up, James."

"Yes sir, Mr. Alec, Sir!" the slight shifting of gravel next to her told Ari that one of them was now lowering himself to his feet. Opening her eyes just a fraction of the way, she saw a dark expanse of hair covering a pair of strikingly dark green eyes. The one called Nate, maybe? Through narrowed eyes, she saw him study her and then she saw him lift a hand. A second later, she felt a light weight on her temple. She didn't know what he did, but she felt a surge of warmth spread through her head. The pain, so dominate before, slowly began to dissipate and Ari's head felt a lot lighter and a lot better. Nate, crouched on his feet, stood up and offered Ari a hand as she opened her eyes. She didn't take it, but scrambled into a sitting position and leaned her back against the wall. Alec stood across from her, leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed over his chest. Crouched on the ground and studying her with wide, dark eyes, the Yankee-James, they called him-was still talking,

"-wonder who her parent is. I mean, she could be Sif's but-"

"I keep telling you this, James; she can't be Sif's. She's not pretty enough." Nate rolled his eyes,

"Come on, Alec; play nice."

"She started it."

"You attacked me!" Ari interrupted indignantly.

"I was trying to calm you!"

"You threw me against a wall!"

"Yeah; _after_ you sprayed me with Pepper spray!" Before she could throw something at him, a yell interrupted their argument.

"Ari!" her brother's voice called, "the hell are you Pix?! I swear, if you don't answer I'm calling the cops and telling them that you tried to rob the Circle K down the road!" Ari jumped to her feet and darted to the entrance of the alleyway, ignoring the loud yells of the three insane teens. When she spotted her brother, all thoughts of gods and crazies vanished, replaced with nothing but relief. Finally, something she could actually believe in! Ignoring the heavy bag on his shoulder, she darted towards him and all but tackled him in a hug. He dropped his own bag and hugged her back just as tightly. Seconds passed before he drew away and held her at arm's length, looking more relieved than furious.

"Where the hell have you been? I tried calling you and everything and then I heard this weird sound and- OW! Why the hell did you just smack me?!" The reminder of the thing that nearly got her killed made her furious,

"You idiot! Are you aware that you almost got me killed?! Why the hell would you call me?!" Before Jase had a chance to answer, another voice interrupted,

"Well, this is touching. Kind of." Ari turned to see Alec, Nate, and James leave the Alley and walk up to the. Jase moved so that he was standing in front of Ari, his taller frame easily hiding her smaller one. She wrinkled her nose at his back and sidestepped so that she was standing next to him. He didn't notice, he just glared at the three teens,

"Who the hell are you?"

"Teenagers," Alec drawled, amused, shifting from foot to foot, his hands resting on the hilt of his sword. Ari's eyes were drawn to the sword and from the way his back went rigid, Ari could tell that Jase's had too.

"Look," Jase began, "we don't want any trouble, okay? So you can just leave and-"

"'Trouble?'" Alec demanded, looking even more amused now, "you think we want trouble? We just saved your sister's life and-"

"You threw me against a wall!"

"You sprayed me with bloody Pepper spray!"

"What Alec is trying to say," Nate interrupted quickly, raising his hands in a 'we-mean-you-no-harm kind of way,' he shot one last glare at a fuming Alec but returned his attention to the wary pair. "Is that we're not going to hurt either of you, alright? We just want to talk and-"a loud roar of thunder interrupted him and the three boys winced.

"What's the matter?" Jase demanded, "Afraid of a little thunder?"

"We're not very fond of the reason behind it," Nate admitted dryly, taking a step closer to the pair. He was inches in front of them before he spoke again, "look, I swear we can explain everything, we just need a safe place to do so. Just… Give us five minutes and if you still don't believe us then I promise you that we'll leave and never bother you again, deal?" Jase eyed the boy warily and then turned to look at Ari. Ignoring the fact that she hadn't stayed behind him, he levelled a wary look at her. She didn't even notice her gaze glued on Nate's, her eyes narrowed in mistrust.

"You swear to leave me alone if I listen to you?" She asked warily. Ignoring the disbelieving sputtering of Alec behind him, Nate nodded,

"On my life."

**Wow this chapter seems bad to me. Anyways! tell me what you think!**


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